Dynamite, Not Feelings, What God's Presence Actually Means
Judges 6:15-16
Last time we looked at Judges 6 verses 11–14, then jumped ahead to verses 25–26. We saw Christ himself appear to Gideon at the winepress in Ophrah. We unpacked that extraordinary greeting — the Lord is with you, thou mighty man of valour — and we studied the Hebrew word hayil, which means strength, competence, substance, wealth. We saw that God did not call Gideon because he had the right opinions; he called him because he was working. And we looked at the first great act of obedience: tearing down his father’s altar of Baal and cutting down the Asherah pole. And we said that the reformation always starts at home.
Today, we’re going to go back and pick up what we passed over — verses 15 and 16. This is some of the richest material in the entire Gideon narrative, because it deals directly with the excuses that keep men from stepping into their calling.
Gideon’s Objections: Humility or Correction of God?
And he said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. In verse 14, the Lord had just given a direct, unqualified commission: Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites — have not I sent thee? Not you might. Not if things go well. You shall.
And Gideon’s immediate response is: but my family, but my tribe, but my standing. This is not just Gideon’s problem. It’s your problem and mine.
What is Gideon actually saying? He’s saying, I need to be something in terms of my background, my human pedigree, my name, my resources, my connections, before I can be used by God for something of this magnitude. On the surface, it sounds humble. Oh, how lowly he is before the Lord. But is it humble, or is it something else? Think about what he’s actually doing. God has just given him a direct sovereign commission, and Gideon is telling God why that commission can’t work. He’s correcting the Almighty. He’s saying, in effect: you’ve made a mistake in your selection. I can give you the address of three better candidates.
That’s not humility. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the way God works and what’s important to him.
God’s Pattern of Choosing the Overlooked
Don’t we do the same? God, I could never lead my family properly — look where I come from. God, I could never build something meaningful — I don’t have the education. God, I could never teach anyone — I’m from Port of Down, or Newry, or somewhere that nobody has ever heard of. But, but, but — and with every but, we are limiting God. We’re telling the Lord of heaven and earth that his selection process is faulty, and that our assessment of ourselves is more reliable than his.
God never chides Gideon in this exchange. And look at his pattern — 1 Corinthians 1:27: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. He chose David, the youngest son, overlooked by his own father, when Samuel came to anoint a king. Jesse didn’t even bother to bring the boy in from the fields. He chose Joseph — another younger son, despised and sold into slavery by his own brothers. He chose Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau. Over and again, God passes over the firstborn, the obvious candidate, the man with the pedigree.
So your lack of personal pedigree is not a disqualification. And if you’re paying attention to the pattern of Scripture, it may well be your primary qualification. Think of Amos — Amos 7:14: I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son, but I was a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. A fruit picker, a herdsman. Not a theologian, not a seminary graduate — a man who worked with his hands in a field. And God sent him to prophesy to nations.
What About Location?
Maybe your objection isn’t about family — maybe it’s about location. A friend of mine says to me: why was I born in Portadown? I understand the feeling. It feels like a nowhere place. But if you find yourself in a nowhere place, you find yourself in the best company imaginable. John 1:46: can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? That’s what the world said about the hometown of the Son of God. If you live at the end of the earth in a place that is the butt of other people’s jokes, take heart. The Lord Jesus Christ himself came from exactly that kind of place.
What God Actually Looks For
So if background doesn’t qualify a man, and location doesn’t qualify a man, what does God actually look for? He looks for character forged in work.
Look at the patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob — decades of faithful labour in the family enterprise. Jacob worked for sixty years and more on the family farm before he ever went to Laban’s household. Look at Daniel and his three friends: highly competent men, administratively gifted, placed in positions of enormous responsibility because they could be trusted to do a job properly. Look at the disciples — not educated men, not wealthy men, but every single one of them had a trade. They were fishermen, tax collectors, working men. They weren’t idle.
Where in Scripture does God choose a man with qualifications but no track record of actual work? I can’t find one. Even the Lord Jesus Christ spent his years before his public ministry as an artisan — a carpenter, buying and selling wood, delivering products and services, trained in practical labour long before he stood up to preach. This wasn’t an accident — it’s a pattern.
Think of Cromwell — before he became Lord Protector of England, before he led armies against the tyranny of Charles, he spent years managing land, managing men, managing money. The crucible of faithful labour in the family enterprise forged him for what was coming. Think of the Boers in South Africa — their character was formed not on a parade ground but on the farm. Hard, steady, practical men, whose daily labour translated directly into martial skill when the time came.
God isn’t impressed by your credentials. He’s not looking at your CV. He’s looking at your hands to see if they show evidence of honest work, and at your heart to see if it contains a love for his covenant.
Surely I Will Be with You
Now look at verse 16. And the Lord said unto him: surely I will be with you, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. God’s answer to every objection is not a list of credentials, not a bigger army or better resources — it’s his own presence.
This is the dunamis theme running through Judges, Luke, and Acts. The Holy Spirit was given for a reason: to get a mission accomplished, to extend God’s kingdom, to equip specific men for their specific assignments. To reduce the presence of God to a feeling is to make God the servant of man. The biblical picture is the opposite: man is God’s servant, and the Spirit empowers him for that service.
And when God’s presence accompanies a person, it does not merely empower — it guarantees victory over entrenched powers. Think of the Magnificat. Mary, in Luke 1, says: he hath showed strength with his arm, he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. This is the language of total overthrow. The complete reordering of society. The removal of entrenched powers and the raising up of the humble, competent people of God into their rightful position.
This is what the presence of God accomplishes. Not just comfort and inner peace — but the toppling of wicked powers and the raising up of the faithful.
God’s Laser-Targeted Plan
Thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. As a coalition? No. As a committee? No. As a three-year lobbying campaign? No. As one man — a single decisive blow. And God was specific about the target: the Midianites and only the Midianites. They were the main cause of the nation’s suffering. Defeat them and the others would scatter.
When you look at the state of our nations, the picture is bewildering. There are thousands of NGOs working to dismantle what remains of Christian civilisation. A permanent bureaucracy that answers to no one. International bodies, intelligence agencies, financial cartels, media conglomerates. But from the throne of God — Revelation 4:6 tells us there is a sea of glass before the throne, like unto crystal — that foamy, murky, chaotic sea is clear as crystal. God sees through the chaos as though it weren’t there. He sees right to the root cause with perfect clarity. And just as he told Gideon the Midianites are your target, he is able to identify and deal with the primary threat to his people in any generation.
And when Midian was defeated, the local problems didn’t disappear overnight. The Canaanite gods were still worshipped. The high places were still standing. It wasn’t until Josiah’s reforms, 550 years later, that these were finally torn down across the land. So we absolutely can and must believe in national deliverance by God’s chosen man — but we must temper our expectations with godly realism. Defeating the primary enemy does not mean every secondary problem vanishes at once. The work of reformation is generational.
So expect real change. Fundamental change. But don’t set the bar so high that you despise real progress because it isn’t total. Recalibrate. Our generation is not worse than Gideon’s — they were open Baal worshippers. God can deliver. Trust him and get going.